After a 40% year-on-year drop in the same period last year, server sales in Europe is witnessing a good time once again. According to figures from research analyst Gartner, the number of servers sold in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in the second quarter of 2010 swelled by 18.4% year-on-year, with 583,500 machines worth a total of $3.2bn shipped. There was a 3.7% surge in the revenues, as compared to the same period in 2009.

With a 29% increase in unit shipments and 37% rise in sales, hardware based on the x86 processor architecture is leading the sales charts. In this category, it’s the Risc/Unix systems that have shown the biggest drop. HP, IBM, Dell, Oracle/Sun and Fujitsu lead the pack of service providers.

Adrian O’Connell, research director at Gartner has, however, underplayed this growth pattern. He has reiterated that the present numbers only paint a good picture when compared to the recession-hit levels of 2009, and that the present economic alarms continue to shrink the overall investment in this sector.